


The Three Huntsmen

by Crystal_Rose_Witch



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Corruption, Found Family, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rehabilitation, thorn questline
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-07-22 18:47:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19969828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crystal_Rose_Witch/pseuds/Crystal_Rose_Witch
Summary: The discovery and resulting hunt to repair a fabled weapon gives this fireteam of three hunters more than they bargained for. Three will start this quest, only two may live to see the results.





	1. The Discovery

“This is the end, Hunter.”  
I stared down my former ally through the sights of my hand cannon, a scowl crossing my face under my helmet, “Yours, not mine.”

It had always been the three of us, Reinmar, Sheo, and me. It had been that way since the beginning and we never thought it would change. We were three hunters who would do anything for each other and for any other guardians. We were a band of brothers, nothing could divide us and we thought we would stay this way till the darkness claimed us all for our final death. We were wrong.

We were patrolling the EDZ during the flashpoint, chatting up a storm on the channel when Sheo came running over to us at full force. He tried to stop but ended up taking down Reinmar anyway, laughing the whole time. “Hey! guys! Look what I found!” Scrambling to his feet he pushed his hood back out of his visor, a grin evident in his voice as he pulled a burned husk of metal out of his bag. Sheo was always one who like to find rare and exotic things. The smallest, strangest item could make him suddenly very happy and this must have been one of those things, “Ain’t it cool!?”

Reinmar and I exchanged a glance before he smiled and looked back to the smaller hunter, “Looks like an overcooked hunk of metal to me but hey if it makes you happy Sheo.” Reinmar tapped his knuckles to the side of Sheo’s helmet, earning a grumble from the shorter awoken who swatted his hand away and adjusted his hood before he went back to examining his newest find.

“What you gonna do with it Sheo? It doesn’t look like it’s able to be fixed.” I shifted my rifle to my other arm and adjusted my own hood to hide my visor form the glare of the sun. Our flashpoint was almost finished; then we could collect our reward from Devrim and go find something else to do.

Sheo shook his head and stashed the charred hunk of metal again, “Yeah, right! The last one to complete the flashpoint is buying drinks after Gambit tonight!” With that outburst, he took off ahead of us, determined to beat us to the finish line despite being behind the both of us in the status of completion. I rolled my eyes and took off after him with Reinmar bringing up the rear, cutting a path clean across the EDZ, headed for Trostland and Devrim Kay. That was a week before things went to hell.

Once we made it back to the Tower Sheo booked it across the hanger and up the stairs, “Come slowpokes! If anyone would know if this can be fixed it would be Banshee!” I had barely transmatted to the hangar floor by the time he was at the stairs so I opted to not wait for Reinmar and took off after him, bounding up the stairs, glancing back to see Reinmar following me, yelling for Sheo and me to slow down but I couldn’t as I knew if someone didn’t catch up to and control the zealous void hunter it would be absolute havoc.

Chasing the small awoken hunter was something that Reinmar and I did regularly so I knew when he would tire out which happened to be at the top of the stairs, on the catwalk that connected the hangars to the courtyard, “Havin’ fun yet? You took off like a Dreg on fire.” I laughed as he scowled at me from under his hood as he adjusted the hunk of charred metal in his gloved hands, “Normally you wait for the two of us but I was just coming out of transmat and Reinmar wasn’t even out of orbit yet. I get you’re excited but…” I couldn’t even finish my sentence before he grabbed my arm and all but dragged me across the courtyard.

“Banshee! I have a kind of big question for you!” The Exo gunsmith turned from talking to an Exo warlock and an awoken titan to Sheo who’s grin was like that of a kid in a candy store. The warlock just cast me a questioning glance but I just shrugged. Sheo plunked the husk of a gun down on to the counter, “Can this be repaired? I found it in the EDZ and it looks like it would be a wicked cool hand cannon or sidearm!” Out of the corner of my eye, I watched the titan lean over slightly to get a better look at the gun before motioning to her friend the warlock. The warlock just nodded to whatever it was she had said and the two walked away with the Exo promising to come back and see Banshee later, to which Banshee nodded as he looked the hunk of metal over.

“Well, it’s been pretty badly damaged as well as charred but it’s not beyond repair. I need some materials though that aren’t readily available or easy to come by nowadays.” The smithy looked from Sheo to me then to Sheo’s other side where Reinmar was standing, “between the three of you though, shouldn’t be too hard.” He handed me a list containing the name of three items and the places we could locate them, “Gonna take a lot of hard work and footwork, but you should be used to that hunters.”

By now Sheo had stashed the gun back in his bag and was only listening halfway to what Banshee was even saying instead opting to snatch the list from my hand and looking it over.

Reinmar leaned over Sheo’s shoulder and studied the list just like I was doing, reading the three items listed: Hadronic essence, plasteel plating, and finally sapphire wire. He gave a low whistle, “This stuff became hard to find after the war…think anyone still knows something about any of these?” We were three hunters, we knew little to nothing about the stuff that Warlocks and Titans used for their arms and armor.

I shrugged, “We could ask around the Vanguard, maybe even ask Lord Shaxx or Sloane about the plasteel and where we might find some,” Shifting my attention to Banshee I glanced to the list again, “When we’re done with our hunting, we bring them to you right?” the Exo nodded again, leaning back first against the wall of his stall near the counter, “Okay…hopefully, we’ll see you soon Banshee!” Grabbing Sheo by the scruff of his hood Reinmar and I dragged him away towards the Bazaar to go talk to the only warlock we really were familiar with: Ikora Rey to see about our first item on the list, or as I called it: our scavenger hunt. Not knowing what the future of this hunt would entail.


	2. The Collection

“So…Hadronic Essence…Ikora said that warlocks used to use it to enhance the light abilities of their armor…” Reinmar was kicked back on a couch in the commons area of our apartment unit, reading the list over Sheo’s shoulder and taking full advantage of the height difference between the two of them as the smaller hunter sat with the list clutched in his cold little hands. To be fair Sheo was only four foot ten and full of void powered hyperness but Reinmar was six-four, built more like a titan than a hunter with the broad shoulders with a gentle personality despite his arc wielding abilities; he would try to avoid fighting other guardians if he had to. He was fast and limber though he could bring some serious weight to a fight when it was needed, “Do we HAVE to take out warlocks for it though? Like in the crucible? Or are there other ways to get it?” I nodded, Sheo was our invader for Gambit for a reason. The two of us could hold our own in a fight, Cayde-6 even told us so, but Reinmar was a gentle giant and I had my own personal reasons for not wanting to fight other guardians.

I took my helmet off, running a hand through my cherry red hair, “She said that if we pulled Nightfalls she would see if she could find some for us. The quantity might be a problem some is better than none. Then there’s Asher Mir, the guy on Io. Ikora thinks he might be willing to let us have some if we complete bounties for him” I summoned my ghost Dune from my armor so I could see what the nightfalls were for the week since Zavala only permitted three of them a week, “We have a choice between Will of the Thousands, The Corrupted, and The Arms Dealer this week. Any preference?” Sheo’s purple eyes fixed on me from across the coffee table I had my feet propped on. I knew he was going to say the corrupted only because he knew I had a problem with the Dreaming City. It was really no secret that the curse made me uncomfortable but I was willing to overlook it for a little while.

Reinmar swiped Sheo on the back of the head, flicking his white hair into his face, “I say Will of the Thousands. We can run that one with our eyes closed. Plus,” He pulled something out his backpack and held it up between two fingers, “I already have a challenge card set up for it to get score but with a singe to put us at the advantage,” I nodded, agreeing that we could do that one and the Arms Dealer in our sleep while Sheo grumbled about having his hair messed with and shrugged, finally agreeing with us as he was in a two on one argument, “So it’s settled. Let’s go bust us some Hive and some Cabal,” Reinmar hailed his ghost Sparks to bring the jump ship around for docking. I did the same as did Sheo who had now taken to grumbling again about my thing of avoiding the Dreaming City which earned him another swat to the head by Reinmar.

By the time we got back the next day we had run the nightfall five times in a row; three for the hell of it and the last two were for trying to get the score, “I’m beat but we got enough essence for Banshee…” We made our way to the Exo gunsmith, plunking the bag of bottled essences on his counter, the part of the list pertaining to the items attached as a sort of inventory note before turning to my fireteam, “Back to the grind guys,” Dune brought the list on my HUD so I could see the next item, “Plasteel? That does say Plasteel right? As in the plating titans use?” Dune nodded her shell and gave me a list of places we could find it. One of which was the Blind Well in the Dreaming City, the others were doing bounties for Sloane but those wouldn’t give us as much as we needed quickly.

The other two seemed to notice my sudden discomfort with this whole thing and Reinmar wad the one to speak up, “Reggie, it’s only a few runs and hopefully, the three of us will meet up with other people in there too…so it will be over quickly,” I leveled my eyes on him through my visor with a scowl. Reinmar was always a peacemaker between me and Sheo who I could tell even with his helmet on had the smuggest shit-eating grin that made me want to tackle him to the floor of the courtyard just to wipe it off his face but Reinmar got between us before I could make a move, “Let’s go you two before we have another fight that ends with the three of us getting our heads bitten off by our Vanguard…” Without another word I transmatted to my ship to save myself from the thought of facing Cayde’s wrath.

The hunter vanguard could be aloof most of the time but when needed he could be as deadly as the hand cannon he carried when dealing with unruly hunters or Exos. Dune let me know the other two were in their ships and following me out of the atmosphere. A trip the Dreaming City could take at least a few hours out of the day so I set the ship for autopilot; letting Dune have control while I went to go lay down and catch a few Zs before we got there. I could hear Dune talking to Rumor and Tempest about who knew what. They were ghosts and they liked to gossip, “Better not be spreading rumors about me Dune,” That got a laugh out of my ghost as she turned her eye to look at me as I laid on my cot with my hood over my eyes trying to get some sleep.

It took us approximately three hours to make it to the Dreaming City, by then I was wide awake, refreshed and steeling my nerves to face the place I dreaded, “We’re here huntsmen! Let’s rock and roll!” I donned my helmet and dropped into the landing zone; Reinmar following me down but Sheo hung back in his ship for a minute or so, “Come on slowpoke!” I threw Sheo’s own barb back at him from when he had called us slow in the tower. We both heard Sheo grumble something into his comm before appearing beside us. Reinmar and I exchanged a look again before he took point and led the two of us across the mists to the Well. I stayed in the back and made Sheo walk between us due to his height and him easily getting lost in places like this.

In the Well we joined up with two warlocks: a sun singer and a storm caller, as well as a titan sentinel who were grinding out bounties for the week. The storm caller put in a charge for a tier III Well activation but I was trying not to have a panic attack the whole time we were in there. The runs weren’t as bad as they could have been since we had six people but we still stuck around for four of tier III runs to get enough of the plating, “Thank you, but we have to go back to the tower now,” The solar warlock nodded a goodbye while her buddies literally ran circles around all of us. We all summoned out ghosts and headed back into orbit, headed for the tower, “How you feeling Reggie?”I was surprised to hear Sheo’s voice through the ship’s comms, especially after that kind of trip the Dreaming City but I guessed the short void hunter had a heart after all.

“Yeah, I’m fine Sheo…I just…that place creeps me out to no end…I don’t care if I’m awoken or not,” Sheo had never understood my discomfort with the place just like Reinmar never did but neither of them ever pried about it. The two of us joked about the trouble of trying to find colors that looked good with our skin tones and awkward hair colors, a conversation Reinmar never got because he was human while we were both awoken. At least our trip to the Dreaming City didn’t take us that long as we were back in the tower by the early morning of the next day.

After dropping yet another bag of supplies, this time the plasteel plating, off with Banshee we headed out to Mars, not that far away from us to go visit one of my personal favorite hunters, “Hey Ana!” The three of us stood at the bottom of the stairs in the Braytech futurescape leading up to the windows where Ana stood working, “Got a question for you about something,” The black-haired hunter turned and smiled at us, motioned for us to come up to her.

“Sure boys. Let’s hear it,” She leaned back against the window behind her after giving Sheo a fist bump and the other two of us high fives. This was the reason she was my favorite hunter behind Cayde; she was knowledgeable about a variety of things as well as a kickass hunter in her own right, especially when it came down to using the Polaris Lance. I’d seen her snipe someone clear across the drift from her with it once and had me take a mental note to never piss her off.

“Sapphire wire, know where we can get some?” I tapped my hand cannon on my palm, spinning it around on my fingers as well while she thought about it. Mars may have been icy and frozen but with all the running around like chickens with our heads cut off kept us warm but I could just feel the suspicion in the single raised eyebrow she gave me, “We need some for a project that Banshee is working on. He tasked us with getting some for him,” I holstered the hand cannon on my belt and, casting a glance to the other two hoping that they would back me up, thankfully Sheo and Reinmar but came through and gave Ana a concrete alibi to back me up.

She gave us a raised brow again in questioning before shrugging, “Tell you what, take care of some hive in the escalation protocol and I’ll see if I can scrounge some wire up for you guys, deal?” This was our last item for Banshee we agreed to the deal. Really it was more Reinmar and I agreeing as Sheo took off down the stairs and out the entryway before I could finish what I was saying to Ana, “Have fun guardians! And keep your eyes up!” I didn’t hear her completely at the end because I was back to chasing after Sheo again with Reinmar in tow.

It took the three of us and four more guardians to run a complete Escalation Protocol, wipe the boss off the face of Mars, and claim our rewards before we headed up to Ana Bray, “Okay Ana, one Mars day and seven levels of the protocol done,” Sheo was bouncing on his toes as Ana laughed and handed a wrapped package of sapphire wire over to him, “Thank you Ana!” He took off down the stairs once more to try and beat us back to the tower. Reinmar shook his head before running after him, yelling for him to wait for us for once only to get called a slowpoke.

Ana clapped me on the shoulder before nudging me off to follow them. I finally caught up with them near the landing zone, “Guys ready to head back?” Reinmar nodded, flicking Sheo on the helmet to get his attention again who just swatted at him but missed.

“Yeah, we’re ready. Sheo’s been over here daydreaming about the new toy he’s gonna get and not to his surroundings,” The arc hunter shouldered his solar auto rifle and scanned the area again through the sights, “finished flirting with Ana?” I shoved him in the arm before jumping into the transmat for my ship. Yes, I had a minor attraction to Ana Bray but I had knowledge that the two of them were actually sweet on each other but never showed it.

We were back at the tower before we knew it and by nightfall, Sheo had his new gun in hand but it bothered me now. I felt like I had seen it somewhere, like a nightmare but I couldn’t place where I had seen it.


	3. The Corruption

Before parting with Sheo’s new gun in tow Banshee gave us one last instruction: to kill guardians in the Crucible with hand cannons. That sounded easy enough since the Iron Banner was coming in tomorrow so Reinmar and I decided to take the night off, let the other guardians have fun in the Gambit Reinmar joked but Sheo wasn’t having it. It was a Wednesday and that meant after finishing our daily business we would usually go out for drinks with our friends. I finished turning in my last bounty to Ikora for the Vanguard before turning to the other two, “ready to go meet up with everyone?” Reinmar nodded, rolling his shoulders but Sheo was kind of staying off to the side, eyeing Ikora suspiciously; if the warlock Vanguard noticed though she didn’t say anything.

I noticed it though and hung back to talk to Ikora about it after sending them off to go have fun, “Ikora ma’am, I need to talk to you,” She turned to face me, hands behind her back and her usual gentle smile. It was easy to see why the warlocks loved her but also why she was a woman who was not someone you fucked with.

“Yes, guardian? What is this about?” Out of the three vanguard members she was one of the more approachable ones, Cayde was the most approachable but Ikora was a close second. I adjusted my cloak on my shoulders as well as my hood; trying not to appear nervous but I knew I was failing horribly, “Is this about your friend’s new gun? That black one?” I nodded as she turned to look out over the city, “My hidden have brought me the news that a gun like that has resurfaced…”

I wasn’t sure what she meant by ‘a gun like that’ but I was worried about the small hunter, “What kind of gun is it, ma’am?” I had a feeling I was going to dread the answer if the hidden had warned Ikora about it but I had to know so I could be properly prepared for what might happen once we fully repair it.

She turned back to face me, a hard, cold look in her brown eyes as her mouth set in a hard line, “It’s a thorn Regdel, Sheo is in possession of a thorn. I do not know much about how bad they can damage someone who possesses one but I would ask the man who runs the Gambit about it, he might be of more help to you. Be brave guardian.” I felt my blood run cold to the point that not even my solar light was keeping me warm. A thorn? As in the fabled weapon of Dredgen Yor? It didn’t sound real. All hunters knew the story of the showdown between Dredgen Yor and Shin Malphur at Dwindler’s Ridge, gunslingers especially and I was no expiation as I was a gunslinger but I thanked her for her time before tearing off up the steps and into the hall that led into the Annex where the Drifter was located now and almost went face-first into the wall by the Drifter’s archway due to overestimating the distance.

The Drifter shot me a curious look from around the corner as I backed up, rubbing my hands where they connected with the brick and stone before entering his alleyway, “Hey there brother, what’s all the hurry?” My fingers found the side hem of my cloak again as I fidgeted it with it. Classic behavior when a hunter is scared or worried though the drifter picked up on it right away, “What’s wrong? Something is wrong as you hunters never fidget with your cloaks unless you’re worried or scared,” He caught the jade coin he had flipped into the air before pushing himself up off the railing to stand straight up, “You can trust me, hotshot, you know that” I tried my best to look the drifter in the face but the words Ikora had said came back to my mind with a vengeance to where I felt like I was going to be sick.

Putting my free hand on the railing I tried to stabilize myself and fight back the feeling of acid burning my throat that made my head spin, “Sheo…Sheo has a…” I tried my best to force the words out in a coherent statement but the world refused to stop spinning as I sank to my knees, not even registering the sound of my armor on the metal or the sound of my helmet hitting the metal as well as I tried to hold back from throwing up, “A…a thor…Sheo has a thorn,” The drifter knelt down in front of me, nudging a bucket forwards toward me. I was glad he did because as soon as those words left my mouth I threw up everything I had eaten that day.

The Drifter sat with me in stunned silence as I proceeded to empty the contents of my stomach into the bucket, coughing slightly when I finally finished, “So…You don’t have to say anything, nodding and shakes of the head are good enough answers. You said someone you know has a thorn?” I nodded slowly, trying not to aggravate the feeling of nausea I was still feeling, “Is it one of your Gambit buddies?” I nodded again, glad the feeling of wanting to throw up again was going away. He sat back on his heels and looked off to the far wall, “Which one is it? The tall one or the short one?” The drifter made a gesture with his hands while talking and I repeated the gesture he had made with his hands close together, “Sheo…the void hunter…he’s the smallest of the group but…i’m worried…what could happen to him?” Looking up again I caught the Drifter’s eyes as he looked from the wall to me again.

His face was solemn as he searched for the words to say. I didn’t want him to let me down easy, I wanted him to tell me straight what could possibly happen to our teams’ void hunter, “The worst it could do would be getting him killed. Thorns are dangerous…they have a poison in their projectile that can block a ghost’s healing abilities of the light on their guardian…” I tuned out after that, everything the Drifter was saying I didn’t want to hear; I didn’t want to think that Sheo could become a murderer just by using a cursed hand cannon on people.

I sat back with my feet tucked underneath myself, “Is there a way to…fix it? Make it not so dangerous?” The Drifter just solemnly shook his head and I could feel my face pale but I pushed myself to my feet and steeled my nerves, “Thank you Drifter…I…I think I understand…what this might come down to,” He stood with me and put his hand to my shoulder and conveyed his message without having to say a word as I nodded in response before turning and heading back to meet up with my friends, the coming days were going to be hell with trying to keep up with the hunter.

The next day I couldn’t have been more right about trying to keep up with Sheo. He was running around faster than either of us even with low mobility on his armor. Mix that with his IKELOS hand cannon and Sheo was a nasty opponent, “Do you know where Sheo is?” Reinmar ducked behind a rock formation in the caverns of the battlefield on Mars; reloading his Trust while he scanned the field on his HUD, “I had eyes on him but I lost him and Dune hasn’t told me he’s been downed.” My ghost agreed with me as I slid into a spot beside him behind the rock formation.

Reinmar must have done two scans of the field before settling on a direction, “He’s on the other side of the field. I can’t see him exactly but I know he’s there,” I was about to ask how till a message on the HUD said that Sheo was on a ten kill streak; that explained why weren’t seeing much action, everyone was either gunning for our fellow hunter or hiding from him. Clicking the rounds cartridge into place he snapped his trust back to firing position, “Let’s not let him have all the fun, Reggie.” With that, the hunter hurried out of his hiding spot leaving me alone. I was going to have to tell him what the Drifter and Ikora both said about the gun Sheo was carrying in his pack but this wasn’t the time for that so I reloaded the Last Word and followed him out of the caverns.

By the time Lord Saladin called the match early Sheo had racked up a twenty kill streak while I had amassed a twelve kill streak thanks to some headshots and a well-placed blade barrage, and Reinmar had a ten kill count but only amassed an eight kill streak, “That…was more of a pain than I thought it would be…” Pulling my knives out I checked them over for any damage as I kept them razor-sharp to ensure maximum damage in a battle, “we need how many?” I put my knives away and stretched as Dune showed me a list on the HUD, “So it’ll take roughly…three hundred kills with non-void hand cannons…but Sheo is running an IKELOS hand cannon which is a void weapon…” This was all starting to make my head hurt, “He alone will need two hundred kills with his hand cannon to make this happen…” I sank down with my back to the wall, contemplating tell Reinmar now about the gun but as I caught the way he was watching the smaller hunter I just couldn’t bring myself to say anything, “Back to the grind?” He nodded as we watched Sheo go back up the stairs to Saladin. If the Drifter and Ikora were right, it was only a matter of time till we were faced with an impossible task.

It took the better half of our day to manage enough kills between our hand cannons and Sheo’s void hand cannon but I still counted out roughly three hundred give or take a few kills. We were taking a small meal break when a message from Tyra Karn arrived via our ghosts. She wanted to talk to us about something and it seemed to really pique Sheo’s attention “You guys ready? If not I’m going by myself,” Typical Sheo, running headlong into Traveler knew what without thinking but this seemed different from his usual.

Staring him down I finished my food without breaking eye contact. Why would Tyra Karn want to talk to us of all guardians? Didn’t get much time to think about it though as I dropped my trash into the bin, making sure I was clean before donning my helmet again, “Yeah yeah, I think Reinmar was doing some work on his ship in the hangars while he had lunch,” At my response the hunter turned on his heels and started to walk away, “Hey Sheo…are you feeling okay?” I couldn’t let on what I knew about the gun, he would have called me a liar anyway; saying that I was jealous of his new hand cannon by calling it a Thorn despite that being exactly what it was. He paused and looked back to me, head cocking to the side as he stared me down like I had done him a few minutes ago, “Yeah I feel fine Reggie. Better than normal actually so let's go get Reinmar and we can leave to see what Tyra wants.” He sounded normal but there was a gnawing feeling in the back of my mind that this was the calm before the storm.

After meeting up with Reinmar we headed out the Farm and met with Tyra. We had to back to Titan for this last step of this quest for something called the Chasm of Screams which I knew from the strike Savathun’s Song. She said it would be harder and more dangerous but it was something we had to do. I hung back again while Sheo jumped into orbit but this time Reinmar hung back with me, “All right, spill it. You’ve been acting dodgy since Wednesday Reggie, what the hell?” He crossed his arms over his chest, not breaking eye contact. Very few people could make me feel small: Lord Shaxx was one of them, Reinmar, when he was mad, was another, “Well? What is it?” Motioning with his hand he clearly wanted me to talk.

I sighed and ran my hand over my helmet under my hood, “Okay but…sit first would you?” He obeyed and parked himself on a crate as I took a minute to gather my thoughts, “Last Wednesday I hung back to talk to Ikora about the melted gun Sheo found…her hidden said something about a thorn and she pointed me towards the Drifter…he…He knows now that Sheo is carrying the Thorn around…Reinmar I don’t care if you believe me or not but this could end badly for Sheo,” I had managed to make it through the entire speech without worrying the hem of my cloak. He seemed to be mulling out over before clapping a hand on my shoulder; that was his way of forgiving and put things under the bridge without saying a word. Without another word again we both headed to orbit to follow Sheo to Titan, not fully believing what was in store for us.

It was hell, literal hell on the living plane, that was what this mission was and the further we went the more and more Sheo seemed to be at unrest, “ Are we there yet? This shouldn’t be taking this long!” If it hadn’t been for the elemental damage buff he probably would have been way ahead of us by now and trying to take on Savathun’s Song on his own, “To hell with it! Why is this so difficult!?” Another acolyte hit the ground and turned to ash from a shot to the head by him. Between his rants, he had been taking frustrations out on the two of us and I could see that if we didn’t reach the end soon Reinmar would try to end Sheo.

Thankfully we reached the end before we had bloodshed, “Okay remember: down the knights before we kill the shrieker okay?” I got no verbal response just nods of the head before we unanimously decided to divide and conquer. It was more difficult than it was annoying but at least I wasn’t breaking up a fight between the two of them’ Reinmar was on the right-hand side and Sheo was on the left hand and going to town with his hand cannon again. Soon both knights were dead so we focused fire on the shrieker, blowing it to pieces with one well placed overpowered shot from the golden gun after Sheo’s shadow shot.

We waited, nothing happened though. The gun was now glowing an off-putting green color but it seemed to draw Sheo in more and more than ever as he took off without us. Both of us saw the look in his eyes though even through his helmet. It was a crazed look, much to Reinmar’s dispair, “You…you were right Reggie, he has a Thorn…like something from a nightmare…” He turned to me, voice shaking through his comms, “What do we do?” He was scared, and I couldn't blame him.

I had no answers for him, all I could do was put his hand to his shoulder in comfort, “We wait…that’s all we can do.”


	4. The Breaking point

Sheo wasn’t well; both Reinmar and I could see it. The darkness that just seems to consume him and that gun; the Thorn…it looked like something out of a bad dream all sharp edges and unsettling darkness. I found myself waking up with nightmares from it more than once despite it not even being in my room with me.

The first time I noticed the difference was following a strike. He had been becoming more aggressive and agitated the whole time; not at the two of us like he had been during the strike to get the thorn but it was still different for him. It was being directed at the work we were doing, “Sheo? Are you doing okay?” He spun to look at me but it was like he wasn’t the hunter I remembered. His eyes looked crazed, mad even like he could just pull the thing on me at any second as his hand found the grip of it without looking; it made me take a step back until my back touched my ship my hand though wrapped itself around the grip to the Last Word which was holstered on my belt.

I wasn’t going to pull it unless he did first but I could see we had garnered the attention of our Vanguard Cayde-6 who was sitting on a crate across the hangar and was looking directly at us. I pray prayed he wouldn’t get up and come over to us but that was exactly what he did, “Hey hey, what’s going on over here?” He glanced between us a few times before I took my helmet off and faced him but Sheo refused to take his eyes off of me.

“Nothing Cayde, it’s just a…disagreement between fireteam members…” My usual habit of covering for Sheo was coming back and I could tell now that Cayde wasn’t buying it this time as he motioned for me to follow him as Sheo left the hangar, if he was anything like he used to be he was going to go play some gambit with Reinmar while I had to talk with Cayde.

Back over at his station the hunter turned to look at me again, “No offense to you for lying to cover him, you always do that, but that didn’t look like a disagreement. I’ve seen you two disagree before and it’s never come down to a draw situation before,” We both knew that a draw situation between guardians was very uncommon so my trying to play it down was something unusual, “We both saw what that was he was carrying. Ikora passed the word not o me that one of my hunters was carrying a gun like that, I thought she was joking but now I see she wasn’t,” He looking int he direction Sheo had gone then back to me, “I need you to listen to me, hunter: If he starts to go awol and becomes a threat to guardians and civilians, you or your friend need to tell either me or Ikora immediately, understood?” I nodded but Cayde seemed to know that I was thinking about something other than that, “You’re thinking guardian, I can see your brain smoking,” He flicked the side of my helmet, “We can try and prevent it from coming down to that…” I wasn’t sure how Cayde knew but all I could offer was a weak smile behind my helmet as he left me be. I sure hoped it could be prevented.

Another week had past and yet the darkness in Sheo seemed to grow, as did the unrest of everyone around him, “He’s not well Reggie…” Dune floated off to the right side of my helmet, providing more light when I needed it while I worked on cleaning my hand cannon, “I’m getting worried about Rumor…she doesn't respond to Tempest or to me when we try to get in contact with her…” Both both Reinmar and I were fielding concerns about Sheo’s ghost Rumor. She was more level headed but quick to excite like a small child at times. I reached over and lightly patted her shell, getting a grumble of discontent when I accidentally got oil on it, “Hey hey, not on the shell! You’re the one that’s cleaning it you know,” her shell clicked in slight discomfort and annoyance as if she was trying to see where the oil smudge was. Dune didn’t tend to nag me but it was usually for the better when she did and this was one of those moments, “alright Dune, I’ll go see Sheo and see how his ghost is doing, okay? Where is he right now?” I wiped the gun oil on my hands off on a rag as I stood up. My ghost checked the roster to see where the other two were, “Reinmar is running Crucible right now and Sheo is...in the Gambit, he's flying solo," There was a moment's pause before she spoke again, "He’s in Gambit Prime actually…” She sounded concerned like she usually did lately but I patted her shell again before holstering the Last Word now that it was clean and heading out of my room and down to talk to the Drifter again.

When I got down to the bank I didn’t see the drifter at all. Normally he was present or left a message if he was watching over a match but there wasn’t even his usual ‘out for the time being, leave a message’ sign with its little pad of paper so I rested my hands on the railing and waited, “You looking for the drifter?” I looked up at the metallic sounding voice; meaning the guardian was an Exo, only they sounded like that. I looked to my left to see an Exo titan standing at the archway. I nodded and he just looked past me to the bank, “The Drifter said he won’t be back for a while…he flagged me down as I was coming past, was having me find the members of some fireteams for him…” The guy sure didn’t waste words but I wondered what had happened that the Drifter wouldn’t be available then it hit m again; I felt the cold feeling, like ice in my veins again as I sidestepped him and bolted from the hallway, headed for the bazaar as fast as I could.

The good thing about being a guardian: when you were in a hurry very few civilians would willingly stand in your way as a guardian running full force through somewhere wasn’t common and generally meant shit had hit the fan or was about to. As I approached the bazaar I looked around frantically, yet calmly, for Ikora; hoping she would be available. It was too far to go for Cayde from where I was at the moment so I went to the first available Vanguard which was the warlock, “Hey, you looking for Ikora?” I turned and looked up, seeing Hawthorne standing at her lookout. She was turned and looking down to me though as she spoke, “Cayde came and got her, I heard something about an emergency Vanguard meeting and they left, wonder what happened.” I just shook my head to myself and headed for the meeting room. I knew what this was about and I prayed that I would get to Sheo before someone else got hurt. Hawthorne called after me but I didn’t hear it through the blood pounding in my ears.

The meeting room as dead silent from the other side of the door, I couldn’t hear a single voice as I gingerly knocked on the door, “Commander Zavala, Vanguard Ikora, Vanguard Cayde…may I come in?” Now I could hear voices on the other side of the door before the door opened and Cayde let me step inside, closing it behind me. Ikora turned from facing Zavala to facing me, her eyes cold and hard, “Regdel, when was the last time you spoke to Sheo Vehl?” She was trying to be as kind and easy about it as possible but the look in her eyes spelled murder for the void hunter if this was the one it was about.

I had to honestly think about it before answering and I could feel all eyes on me as I did. Being under Cayde’s gaze I was used to but being under Ikora’s death glare and Zavala’s pissed off glare was something I never wanted to experience, “The last time I saw Sheo in person was two days ago Ikora ma’am. My ghost was the one who told me he was in the area again,” I swallowed hard, not sure if I should mention that he was in the gambit as the drifter was generally touchy about the vanguard knowing about it.

Cayde beat me to it though as he looked sideways at me, “He was playing the gambit right?” I nodded weakly causing Cayde to sigh, “No use dancing around it, we’re all guardians here, all adults,” He turned and came over to me, “Reggie, Sheo…potentially killed a guardian, he shot them twice, point-blank range with the thorn and bailed before the Drifter could say anything,” I felt like I was going to be sick but I fought it back the best I could.

This was my worst nightmare form to light and now there was only one way I could reverse it: Bring down Sheo and get rid of that gun before it was too late, “I’ll handle this sir,” I looked Cayde straight in the face, “I’ll handle this…” The commander said something but I was too livid to hear what it was, I turned to face him, “With all due respect commander, THIS involves my fireteam so I will handle it personally.” With that said I turned, swishing my cloak behind me, to which I could hear Cayde snicker, and left; hailing Dune to get the jump ship ready for take-off and track down Sheo’s ship, it was time to end this.


	5. The Confrontation

If there was one thing Sheo was it was predictable. I knew he would be waiting for me wherever he was and being a hunter he knew the story of Shin Malphur and Dredgen Yor, was fascinated by it really, used to ask about it all the time when I was first teaching him how to be a hunter. It gave me an idea about where I could find him: not Swindler’s Ridge, no, he wasn’t THAT cliche but I did remember a spot where Reinmar and I used to teach him to shoot his hand cannons when his aim sucked: a flat, isolated, patch of ground in the EDZ, just outside the outskirts and sea the way to Niobe Labs; if he went anywhere he was there, waiting and ready for a showdown.

I settled back into the seat of my jump ship, turning my hand cannon over in my hands after setting course for the EDZ, “Dune, contact Devrim, see if he’s noticed Sheo’s ship coming into the area, ID code: V-H735,” I checked the Last Word, making sure it was fully loaded but just the sight of the gun in my hands made me feel horrible. I was going to take another hunter, one of my own friends and a member of my fireteam. After this we wouldn’t be the three huntsmen…we would just be two hunters in need of someone to fill the spot in our fireteam. I shook my head, I didn’t want to think like that; if I could prevent his ghost from dying all I had to do was get the gun and beat some sense into the hunter, simple in theory but I had to wait and see what this brought.

The sound of the engines almost had me lulled to sleep when Dune cut through the fog, “Hey don’t fall asleep on me. Devrim said his ship did pass through, he’s he passed through Trostland headed for sojourner’s camp…where do you think he’s going?” She may not have remembered but I remembered it clear as day, “I hope Rumor is all right…I haven’t lost connection with her…it’s just been hazy…like the darkness coming off that gun is clouding her…” We both knew Sheo cared about Rumor so her well being was going to be a great indicator for what was going on and what could happen.

We dropped into Trostland and once my feet hit the road I wasted no time summoning my sparrow the Tilt Fuze, speeding off towards the outskirts and ultimately to Sojourner’s camp and Sheo, “Try to stay in contact with Rumor, her condition is important Dune. If she makes any indication that she is in danger you know I’m not going to hesitate to use the golden gun for this fight,” I prayed he wasn’t crazy enough yet to hurt his ghost to where this would be his final death. The three of us had barely made it through the Red War together, hiding from the cabal and living in the wilds, hunting animals and the occasional fallen to survive until we found the Farm and other survivors from the city. I’m not going to lie I thought we were the only three to survive and nearly cried when I saw everyone else at the Farm, especially Cayde when he showed up with that Exo warlock and an awoken hunter. Both of them must have been a fireteam of their own just missing their third member. I didn’t see them after that until we managed to retake the City from the Cabal but right now I had to think about the welfare of my teammate.

The ride to the camp felt like it took longer then it should have despite running my sparrow at full speed but finally I exited the tunnel and entered the campsite, “Okay Sheo…where are you?” I stalled my sparrow and looked around, eventually spotting Rumor peering over a ledge, “There you are,” After dismounting I made my way over to him to see Sheo standing with his back to me, “Sheo…” I steeled myself as my hand found itself around the grip of the Last Word again as he turned to face me.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. His normally vibrant green eyes were almost completely blackened and he looked pale, deathly almost and his white hair made it worse, “Reggie…” He forced a laugh before continuing, “You know I was actually kind of expecting you to not be alone but I guess that’s not your style huh? Gunslingers are the lone wolves after all.” His thorn was in his hands but I could see it didn’t look like he had made a move to hurt his ghost which was a good sign, “Of all the people to come after me it’s you Reggie, of course it is; the gunslinger was the one who took down the dredgen right?” Of course, he would be the one to bring up the story of what happened at Swindler’s Ridge. I scowled at him and the red snakes that decorated his invader armor; Cayde was right, he must have bailed directly from the match, didn’t even bother to change his armor from his Gambit Prime set up.

The more I heard his voice the more unnerved I became. It sounded like him but yet it didn’t, he sounded wrong and distorted in a way and I blamed that damn gun for it all, “Sheo please, we don’t have to do this,” I could hear Dune trying to reason with Rumor to get her to go hide somewhere for her own well being. Eventually, she relented and hid herself away somewhere away from Sheo where he couldn’t hit her if he tried to shoot her. With Rumor safely out of the picture I focused my full attention on the hunter in front of me, “It doesn’t have to come to blows like this where only one of us walks away.” I really had no idea if negotiating was going to work but I was going to try everything to prevent it from turning into a gunfight that would be a repeat of Swindler’s Ridge.

He shook his head and sighed like I wasn’t understanding what he was saying, “Reggie, you and I both know how this is going to end. There’s no way around it so let's just get this over with shall we?” He cocked the thorn as he walked away from me, stopping when he reached the other end of the flat area. This was just how we used to practice our quickdraw technique so I readied the Last Word, prepared for him to make the first move. For the longest time, we just stood there staring each other down, daring the other to make the first move. We both pulled our hand cannons at the same time, he fired off two shots; one went wide and the other came close but I didn’t know if I got hit while I fired off six. Three of my shots hit the thorn directly rendering it unusable, one hit him square in the chest and the last two impacted his helmet. I knew I didn’t do much damage but my main objective was to stun, not kill.

As soon as he hit the ground I holstered my gun; making sure it was locked in place so he couldn’t get it off me and pinned him to the ground after making sure his thorn wasn’t within range, “Please…Reggie…don’t do something you might regret,” I hadn’t even noticed I was in a rage until I heard Dune’s voice cut through it like a ray of sunlight through a storm.

Blankly I stared down at the hunter underneath me before I looked back to her, “Dune, to knock him out where’s the best place to hit him? I want him to stay out for a while…enough to get him back to the Tower ideally…” I could tell her look was one of disbelief before she caught up with what I was planning. I was taking him back to the tower but not to face judgment as I knew Zavala would not hold back, I was taking him home to be around his friends and those that cared about him while he recovered. For all I cared the drifter could have the Thorn or Ikora could lock it away somewhere; I just wanted it as for from him as possible since he was probably going to have a real problem once he came to as the darkness was purged from by his light.

Dune hesitated to answer my question since she didn’t like the thought of me openly striking Sheo until to both of our surprise Sheo’s helmet disappeared, “Generally a hit to the head will be enough especially if you strike the side of his head. Do it without his helmet on and he’ll certainly be down for the count,” Dune spun around to see Rumor floating over to us, “I know what you are wanting to do, you want to protect him and save him…I respect that about you,” I had always known Rumor to be soft-spoken and quiet much like her name so to hear her speak this much was strange. Taking her advice I figured the best place to hit him would be the temple as it was a soft spot of the skull and if he did die his ghost was still alive and kicking so he would be fine too.

Curling my right hand up into a tight fist I pulled back and let him have it with a solid blow to the left side of his head. I pulled back, contemplating if I needed to do it again but I felt he would be down for a while. I got to my feet, taking care to not step on the smaller awoken as I got off of him, “Dune, contact Reinmar…I…don't think I could handle taking him home…not after this…” Moving to adjust my cloak I felt a stinging pain in my right arm. Looking to see what I was feeling I spotted a bloodstain spreading down my sleeve, “Well shit…" I didn’t think I got hit by the Thorn but upon closer inspection, I could see it was just a flesh wound, his projectile had gashed my arm but it wasn’t lodged in me, unlike that poor guardian Sheo had shot point-blank in the Gambit match while invading. Taking a seat on a box near some downed fallen I tried to get a better look at my arm through all the blood and the ripped fabric. I could have easily had Dune fix me up by this wasn’t that severe, not like I was going to lose my arm or something.

It didn’t take Reinmar long to get to us, I could see his jump ship coming in on approach form where we were; it was hard to miss that ugly orange monstrosity even from where we were standing as the sun hit it. It took him another 15 minutes to get to our location by sparrow, slow by my standards but Reinmar didn’t drive the way I did; throttle down and taking every available jump I could, “Reggie what…” He cut himself off as he stared, eyes moving between me and Sheo. I knew he had seen the ripped and bloody sleeve of my armor but he had also seen the decent looking bruise on Sheo’s head from where I had punched him, “what happened? he’s…not dead is he?” Reinmar sounded scared and worried now, more concerned for Sheo’s well being than for me it sounded like but I expected that.

The simmering anger that had been there was gone now as I shook my head and motioned to Rumor, “Rumor’s alive, she’s intentionally not healing him back to full health so we can get him back to the tower without a conflict from him fighting us…I…knocked him out per Rumor’s request…I just can’t bring myself to take him home by myself…” subconsciously I moved my hand up to the bleeding wound on my arm which quickly drew his attention, “I’ll be fine, it’s just a knick…one of his shots grazed me, I don’t think I got poisoned…but that’s all the more reason for me to not be dealing with him solo,” It was starting to sting badly as my hand pressed to the wound to keep it covered but he didn’t need to know that.

He seemed to be thinking over what I had said before nodding in agreement, “Right…he’ll take him home…where did you want me to put him? And should I let Cayde know he is back, safe and sound?” I hadn’t thought about telling Cayde but I knew it would go over better if he heard it from me so I shook my head, to which Reinmar nodded. Kneeling down he scooped Sheo up in his arms and transmatted to his ship to go back to the tower, leaving me alone with my thoughts for a while.

I sat back on the box and stared up at the sky, “How do I tell this to Cayde? Hey, Cayde, I brought back the hunter who tried to kill off another guardian while playing an illicit competitive game called gambit? That would fly like a lead brick around them right now,” After transmatting back up to my ship I sat down on my cot with the medical kit open beside me, “I want to try and deal with this right now though…then I will write up a script to report to Cayde,” Dune lulled her shell from side to side while she watched me. It hurt like hell trying to get my vest off so I could get my sleeves off until my ghost transmatted my chest armor and grips off of me, “…thank you Dune…” She just settled on my knee while I worked on trying to fix my arm, grumbling about how she could just fix my arm up but I was just being stubborn, “I told you Dune, I’m fine…tell you what: I try to fix it up myself and if that doesn’t work I’ll let you have at it okay? You know I don’t like constantly relying on you for medical help.” It was true, I hated doing it, even more so now after I carried her dead shell around with me after we lost the traveler. It showed me that I had to be more self-sufficient or I would end up dead and I ended up offering up more than a few cloaks to be used as bandages at the farm as well as showing them how to make things.

That seemed to please her enough to let me work in peace until I had my arm cleaned and was finishing bandaging it up, “ Here…let me help you. The wrapping ends at a strange spot,” She floated up off my knee where she was comfortable and took the one end with her light; holding it so I could tie it up, “Back to the tower now?” She materialized a note pad and pen into my lap, nudging it forwards closer to me, “start writing your script for what you’re going to say to him, I’ll get us moving okay?” I nodded and started jotting down on the pad what I had to say to Cayde, scratching it out multiple times before I settled on a decent two to three paragraphs to base myself on, now I just had to muster the courage to face not only Cayde but the Vanguard in whole. This was going to be real fun.


	6. The Resolution

Dropping into the Annex landing zone I booked it up the stairs, blazing past the Drifter and the hallway back to where Ada-1 was before turning on my heels and barely making it up the stairs without tripping over my feet while managing to keep my arm hidden by my cloak, “Where to? the meeting hall or your apartment?” I hadn’t even noticed Dune was out of my armor until I stopped at the top of the stairs, the pain my arm becoming unbearable from my running, “you need a clean set of armor Reggie…you look horrible like you were sent through hell and back,” She stopped, moved closer to me then away again, her eye flickering, “and you smell like it too. Hold on, I’m going to take you to your apartment,” I got no chance to argue as she transmatted me to the living room of my apartment.

Was it a surprise to see the other two members of my fireteam on the couch in the living room of my apartment? Not really. Sheo was still unconscious and lying there on the couch, head resting on a pillow while Reinmar sat on the arm of the couch, his cloak covering the smaller hunter like a blanket, “Guess I should have cleaned up the house first,” Reinmar laughed at that but I could feel it was hollow, that he was hurting, and I couldn’t help but feel it was my fault, “Reinmar…” He seemed to know what I was going to say as he put his hand up to stop me before I got any more out.

“Reggie, this isn’t your fault, not wholly at least…most of it is my fault…You were skeptical about the gun from the beginning and you were right to be so…I just…I was so happy seeing him so excited about it I never once gave a thought that he was making his own demise…” Reinmar stood up off the arm of the couch and approached me, looking me over as he did so, “You did the right thing. Guardians not only protect the city and the light but…we also look out for each other. That's what fireteams are…” He grinned, moving his hand up to ruffle my hair under my hood, “I heard rumors about what you said to the vanguard, especially to the commander about it being a personal affair, I bet THAT felt awesome,” I could feel no malice emanating from him so I believed when he said he felt this wasn’t my fault though I did take most of the blame for letting this happen. Reinmar motioned to my arm afterward, “You need some help with that?” His brow furrowed a bit as I moved my hand to cover the wound again.

It wasn’t that I wasn’t trusting his help I just was still a little on edge, “I already told Dune that she could heal it if it’s not looking too good…but sure…” I glanced to Sheo who was still on the couch, “Is it safe to leave him alone?” Reinmar glanced over his shoulder as he watched the small hunter sleep, “I’ll go get a better first aid kit and we can sit out here…no different from when we would be sitting on one of the three of our’s jump ship fixing each other up,” Turning for the hallway I headed to my room to get a clean change of clothes and the better first aid kit I kept stashed in the bathroom. Having achieved that feat without using my wounded arm more than I needed to I returned to the living room; the clothes, which was just a pair of ancient apocalypse strides and a t-shirt were draped over my shoulder and the kit was hanging by it’s handle in my good hand. I accepted the fact that I would probably have to either have Dune help with getting my armor off again or just shred my sleeve on the right side and be done with it so I dropped down onto the floor beside Reinmar who checked over the medical kit while I struggled to get my armor off, too stubborn to accept my ghost's help with it again.

The vest was the one thing that gave me trouble as it was a solid piece; meaning it had to be taken off with both hands and pulled up over the head. I could see Reinmar’s shoulders shaking as he tried to suppress his laughter but as he glanced over to me he couldn’t suppress it anymore and broke down laughing, “H-having trouble there…Reggie?” He couldn’t get it out without having to take breaks to try and stop his laughing even as I glared at him, “L…l-let me help you with that,” He placed the med-kit down, turning to face me he took the edge of the fabric in his hands since I had taken the plasteel metal chest piece off in the bedroom. Putting my arms up I let him take the vest off, pulling it up over my head. I screwed my eyes shut, not wanting to see the stars from the pain of having to put my arm up above my head and took a deep breath to keep my wits about myself.

The feeling the fabric of my sleeves and grips being removed from my arms made me open my eyes again as I gingerly lowered them back down to my lap, grimacing as my right arm protested badly; shooting pain down to my fingertips and all through my spine, “Okay this is going to hurt Reggie. That bandage is soaked with blood and needs to be removed…but it’s stuck fast to the wound…smells like infection started to set in too,” Only Reinmar would have been able to keep his voice calm and level like that in this situation but I just nodded for him to get it over with. In hindsight, we probably should have let a healer like a warlock help but we didn’t know many, plus my ghost was right there if it was infected badly. Larger than life as Reinmar cut the fabric away we could both see that it was starting to get infected, “I can tell you tried to tend it yourself…but it looks like there was enough poison from the projectile that it didn’t work well,” He pulled out a pad of gauze and some green liquid in a bottle; that was the thing I knew was going to hurt. It was poison cutter, often called other names by guardians it was a miracle worker when handling wounds from weapons like this.

Reinmar soaked a cotton ball in the fluid and began to clean my arm, much to my protest and complaining before wrapping it in fresh bandages while Dune healed up the worst of it, “I’ll leave some so you will have a nice scar to tell stories about,” I reached over and flicked her shell before grabbing my hunter t-shirt and pulling it on over my tank top, “On to meet with the Vanguard?” I nodded as I got to my feet, grabbing the strides in the process and headed for the bathroom again.

Once I got changed and cleaned myself up somewhat I grabbed my jacket with patches from all over the system on it and headed for the door, “Don’t know when I’ll be home Reinmar, if you two leave have your ghost put a seal on the door and let me know okay?” He gave a sound of acknowledgment as I pulled the hood of my jacket up and left. The vanguard meeting room was empty when I got there so I spun on my heels to go hunt down my vanguard only to run headlong into someone, “Op’, sorry ‘bout that,” I looked up to see someone in full ancient apocalypse armor from head to foot and shaded in gambit chrome, standing there just staring at me. When they didn’t say anything I ducked around the person and headed for the hangars but I could feel their eyes on me till I rounded the corner to go to the courtyard.

Making it into the hangar I scanned the area before settling on Cayde who was sitting on a crate by his workstation, chatting it up with Amanda. Slowly and cautiously I made my way over to them but stopped when Holliday pointed me out over Cayde’s shoulder, “Hey, you made it back. Is it done?” The Exo turned himself on the crate to look at me, optics dimming when I didn’t look him directly in the face, “You know I wasn’t expecting you to kill him. All you had to do was bring him in, did you?” When I failed to respond that time Caye sighed and got to his feet, “Come on, let’s go see Ikora…clearly, something happened that you aren’t talking about,” For the second time that day I got no chance to argue as he grabbed the back of my jacket, right where the hood met the collar since I wasn’t in armor and made me walk with him.

The talk with Ikora wasn’t as bad as I had been thinking it would be. She wasn’t cold like she was back in the meeting room but she still intimidated me. To be honest I zones out for most of the conversation between Cayde and her but I came back to the discussion as Ikora asked me what I felt should be done since this concerned my fire team, “I don’t want him to be put to death or whatever it is that is done to guardians who do things like this…he didn’t know what he was doing I think…he knew I was going to come after him….” I paused to collect more of my thoughts before continuing, “He wasn’t remorseful but I also don’t think he actually knew what he had done…he has no problem shooting other guardians, that why he does so well in the crucible and is an invader…” I didn’t know why I was pulling back about the Gambit, Cayde had already confronted me about it in the meeting room, “I have the gun in my possession and I want to get rid of it…Sheo is with Reinmar so he’s not alone but…” I thought back to how black Sheo’s eyes had been when he faced me, “This cursed gun is the problem. I knocked him unconscious and got the gun away from him miss Ikora.” I could tell she was still considering having him sentenced until Cayde spoke up.

Cayde cared about all his hunters, if you were having a bad day Cayde seemed to just know about it and sought you out to come talk to him, “Sheo’s the short awoken right? He’s a good guardian and a damn good hunter, one of the best spectral blades user I’ve ever seen,” He then shot a glance to me, “You’re hoping he can be rehabilitated right? Be allowed back into the guardian ways?” I hadn’t even thought about Sheo being rehabbed back into being a good guardian again but it sounded like a good idea. Ikora seemed to agree with the idea of sending Sheo into a rehab program but now I just had to break this news to Reinmar and ultimately Sheo so I excused myself to go back to my apartment to face the other two of my team and convince Sheo that this was for the best.


End file.
